Ellipsis occurs when an element is not stated explicitly but is indicated by construction or context. An interpreter may supply an understood element to clarify the meaning; this explanation is not part of the Qur’an’s actual wording.
وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ
“Ask the town”: in context, ask its people.
Supplying the sense “people of the town” makes the meaning explicit without altering the verse. Other constructions can imply a genitive complement, an object, a predicate, or the result of a condition, but one must not invent an omission wherever the wording feels compressed.
Test the proposed explanation: Does the meaning call for it? Does Arabic permit it? And does the context support this particular reconstruction?